Top 20 endpoint protection software by AI search visibility (2026)
Security platforms used to detect, prevent, and respond to malware, ransomware, and endpoint threats across business devices. Ranked by a composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
Refreshed Jun 05, 2026At a glance
What we observed in this categoryauto-generated
SentinelOne, CrowdStrike, and Microsoft Defender share an identical visibility score of 50.0%, each more than three times the category average of 14.4%. Despite this three-way tie at the top, SentinelOne's composite score of 53.8 pulls meaningfully ahead of CrowdStrike and Microsoft Defender, both at 35.0. That gap is driven entirely by citation: SentinelOne holds a 62.5% citation rate while its two co-leaders register 0.0%. In a category where the average citation rate is just 3.8%, this divergence is structurally significant.
The visibility-versus-citation split across the top brands exposes a clear distinction between brands the AI names and brands the AI trusts enough to link. CrowdStrike and Microsoft Defender appear frequently in AI Overviews but receive zero citations, meaning the AI references them from internalized training data rather than live sourced content. SentinelOne and Huntress (citation rate 12.5%) are the only brands in the top 10 whose domains appear in the cited sources list, suggesting they produce content the AI actively anchors to when generating responses.
Google AI Overviews is the top engine for every brand in the dataset without exception, indicating this category's AI visibility landscape is currently a single-engine story. The cited source list reinforces an authority pattern: sentinelone.com leads citations, followed by third-party validators gartner.com, solutions.trustradius.com, and community sources reddit.com and openedr.com. The presence of venn.com and deel.com as cited sources is an outlier worth monitoring, suggesting AI Overviews is drawing on adjacent business-software content when constructing endpoint protection responses.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility risers
-
SentinelOne 0% → 50% · rank #0 → #1+50pp
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CrowdStrike 0% → 50% · rank #0 → #2+50pp
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Microsoft Defender 0% → 50% · rank #0 → #3+50pp
The ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
sentinelone.com
|
50% | 62% | Google AI Overviews |
SentinelOne matches peers on visibility at 50.0% but is the only top-3 brand with citations, posting a 62.5% citation rate against a category average of 3.8%. |
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| 2 |
crowdstrike.com
|
50% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
CrowdStrike ties SentinelOne at 50.0% visibility but records 0.0% citations, producing a composite score of 35.0 versus SentinelOne's 53.8 — a 18.8-point gap. |
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| 3 |
microsoft.com
|
50% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
Microsoft Defender matches CrowdStrike exactly — 50.0% visibility, 0.0% citation, composite 35.0 — despite domain authority that might be expected to drive sourcing. |
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| 4 |
sophos.com
|
38% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
Sophos trails the top three with 37.5% visibility and 0.0% citations, placing it 12.5 percentage points below the visibility leaders with a composite score of 26.2. |
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| 5 |
huntress.com
|
25% | 12% | Google AI Overviews |
Huntress is the only brand outside the top 3 with any citations at 12.5%, distinguishing it from Bitdefender at identical 25.0% visibility but 0.0% citation rate. |
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| 6 |
bitdefender.com
|
25% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 7 |
trendmicro.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 8 |
malwarebytes.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 9 |
checkpoint.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 10 |
avast.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 11 |
eset.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 12 |
trellix.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 13 |
paloaltonetworks.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 14 |
cisco.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 15 |
fortinet.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 16 |
acronis.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 17 |
webroot.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 18 |
norton.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 19 |
blackberry.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
| 20 |
watchguard.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Overviews |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on endpoint protection software, these are the domains Google AI Overviews cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.
How to read this ranking
Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.
Visibility = being named
A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer.
Citation rate = being trusted
Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence — different from being named.
Top engine differs by brand
The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps.
Rankings move month to month
AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 30 days and refresh this page automatically.
Get your own endpoint protection software brand audited
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.
Frequently asked about endpoint protection software AI visibility
Who leads AI visibility in endpoint protection software?
SentinelOne, CrowdStrike, and Microsoft Defender are tied on visibility at 50.0%, but SentinelOne leads overall with a composite score of 53.8 driven by a 62.5% citation rate.
What is the average AI visibility for endpoint protection software brands?
The category average visibility is 14.4%, meaning the top three brands at 50.0% are running at more than three times the average.
Which brands are cited by AI Overviews in endpoint protection, not just mentioned?
Only SentinelOne (62.5%) and Huntress (12.5%) among the top 10 record any citation rate; all other top brands including CrowdStrike and Microsoft Defender register 0.0%.
What sources does AI cite most for endpoint protection software research?
The top cited sources are sentinelone.com and gartner.com, supplemented by community and review platforms including reddit.com, solutions.trustradius.com, and openedr.com.
Which AI engine dominates visibility for endpoint protection software?
Google AI Overviews is the top engine for every single brand in the dataset, making it the sole material channel for AI-driven visibility in this category.
Is there a gap between brands AI names and brands AI trusts enough to cite?
Yes — 8 of the top 10 brands have 0.0% citation rates despite visibility scores up to 50.0%, indicating the AI references them from training data rather than live sourced content.